My Partner’s Shoe

2 Man Crew: Most youth and high school baseball games that I have had the pleasure to umpire in have used 2 umpires. One who stands behind home plate in full protective gear, calls balls and strikes and keeps the game flowing relatively smoothly. This umpire is called the “plate” umpire. The second umpire is

My Sister and Her Love of the Game

A Bicentennial Birth: In 1976, I was about to turn 10 years old my Mom informed me and my sisters that she was going to have another baby. I was pretty excited about having another sibling and since I had 3 sisters already, I was really hoping for a brother. My 3 sisters at the

Growth through Adversity

Note: Some material in this post may be sensitive. It deals with colorectal cancer and the treatment of it. Summer of 2014: The summer of 2014 seemed to be a pretty normal summer for me. I was playing baseball in a +45 age league and was enjoying it immensely since, baseball was my first love

The False Start

Mighty might league football: After I had been officiating for 5 years, the youth organization that I was a part of decided to start a developmental league for players under the age of 8. They called the league the “mighty might league”. In the league the rules were very clear and were quite different from